Phonetic and Phonological difference between Spanish and English
The English and Spanish language have many similarities. For instance, both languages use the
roman alphabets (a,b,c) or how the two languages have numerous cognates. Just as there are
similarities, there are differences like phonemic(pronunciation) and phonological(spelling or
decoding) differences. Spanish only has five vowel sounds while English has 14 or more.
Spanish speakers have difficulty differentiating between vowel phonemes in words like ‘seat’ or
‘sit’ resulting in spelling errors. Spanish has only 3 double-letter combinations cc, ll, rr. English,
in comparison, has 5 times as many. Spanish learners often reduce English double letters to a
single one, or overcompensate by doubling a letter unnecessarily; for example hopping for the
present participle of hope.
Consonants: in English and Spanish there are 15 phonemes that occur in both languages, 5 that
occur in Spanish only, and 9 that occur in English only example
– “ch” and “sh” are two different phonemes in English. However, in Spanish, students may
pronounce these interchangeably without changing word meaning. For example, students
may pronounce chimenea as “chimenea” or “shimenea.”
Spanish speakers may fail to pronounce the end consonant accurately or strongly enough, for
example: cart for the English word card or brish for bridge or thing for think. They may also
have problems with the letter ‘v’ in words such as vowel or revive.
Syllables: Spanish has syllables that fall within and between words, each syllable has the same
duration, no matter where the stress in the word may fall. On the other hand, English has an
accentual rhythm of speech in which the accented syllables have a longer duration than the
unaccented syllables example, “I stayed a while”.
Accent: In Spanish, placement of an accent on a word may change the meaning, example:
– Camino = (1st person present tense) “I walk.”
Caminó = (3rd person past tense) “You (formal)” or “He/She walked.”